Today: Facebook seeks to abolish user-voting system for privacy policy changes and move to user profiles that cross over into Instagram and other offerings, similar to Google's (GOOG) updated policy; stock hits highest point in almost four months. Also: Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), the day after, and Wall Street's short week.

Facebook looks to change its privacy policies as stock climbs

In moves sure to stir controversy, Facebook is looking to change the way it handles user profiles to a system similar to Google's, and abolish the system it has set up for user feedback on changes. The Menlo Park company's stock, meanwhile, continues to charge higher, hitting levels not seen since mid-summer.

Facebook publicly announced in a blog post Wednesday that it is seeking to rid itself of the user-voting process it has been running since 2009 to obtain feedback from users on privacy policy changes. The system put any privacy policy to a vote of users if it generated more than 7,000 comments, but the vote needed the participation of at least 30 percent of the social network's users to be the deciding factor on whether the change went through.

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With Facebook's massive growth in the past three years, the 7,000-comment threshold became too easy to cross, while the 30 percent mandate was too tough to surpass with a billion members worldwide. In addition, Facebook found that it was not getting strong feedback from its users through the system.

"We found that the voting mechanism, which is triggered by a specific number of comments, actually resulted in a system that incentivized the quantity of comments over their quality," Facebook official Elliot Schrage said in the blog post.

But Facebook is looking to change its privacy policy in a more profound way, Reuters reporter Alexi Oreskovic revealed Wednesday: The company seeks to share information on its users amid its services -- i.e., San Francisco-based photo-sharing app Instagram.

"It took us getting through these lockups without seeing a giant crush of shares show up with no demand," Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter told Bloomberg. "It's pretty clear that the people who were eligible to sell last week are doing so in a disciplined manner. Each day that passes post-lockup there's a new investor showing up who says, 'OK I'm no longer scared by that.'"

"People are much more comfortable with the direction and fundamentals of the company," Arvind Bhatia, a tech stocks analyst for Sterne Agee, told The Mercury News recently.

Facebook moved as high as $24.53 before closing at $24.32 Wednesday, its highest intraday and closing prices since July 26.

Spotlight remains on Hewlett-Packard a day after Autonomy allegations

A day after Hewlett-Packard revealed another dismal earnings report, overshadowed by accusations of accounting malfeasance by big-money software acquisition Autonomy, the story still had onlookers buzzing even as the Palo Alto tech giant's stock price recovered a tad from Tuesday's massive fall.

No matter the buzz around HP, the Autonomy affair has left a black eye on officials inside and outside the company that will take a long time to heal. But investors still sent share prices up Wednesday, possibly looking for value. Shares increased 2 percent to close at $11.94.

Check in weekday afternoons for the 60-Second Business Break, a summary of news from Mercury News staff writers, The Associated Press, Bloomberg News and other wire services. Contact Jeremy C. Owens at 408-920-5876; follow him at Twitter.com/mercbizbreak.